Portland Sewers / Redmond City hall / Beaverton School

Leaky Sewer Line Leads to Lawsuit

Portland - Continued leakage in a Portland,  Ore. sewage pipeline has soiled a local neighborhood and led to a lawsuit against the general contractor and consultant on the project.

The city of Portland filed suit in January in Multnomah County Circuit Court against general contractor James Leahy
Construction Inc., Cornelius, Ore., and engineering consultant Thomas/Wright Inc., Tigard, Ore. for $7 million to $10 million. The suit centers around a switch from the steel pipe specified in the contract documents to PVC pipe for the Multnomah Pressure Sewer Line, says Jim Van Dyke, senior deputy attorney for the city of Portland.

Leahy and Thomas/Wright worked on the $4.5 million Multnomah line as part of an $18 million overhaul to the sewage lines in the area. Originally steel pipe was specified, but Leahy recommended PVC instead, saving about $165,000 and time ordering steel, according to the lawsuit. “Though we don’t usually use PVC on this type of project, it is approved by the American Water 6 Northwest Construction 6/2008 Works Association and used for this purpose across the nation,” says Bill Ryan, chief engineer in Portland’s Department of Environmental Services.

Forensics studies by a city expert show the fittings in some parts of the line are overtorqued, causing the leaks, Ryan says. A consultant is advising the entire line be replaced.

Neither Ken Leahy, owner of Leahy Construction, nor Kathleen Thomas of Thomas/Wright was available for comment.

“Leahy absolutely denies the claims,” says Leahy’s attorney, Bruce Gilbert of Smith Freed & Eberhard PC, Portland.

Sewage repeatedly spilled from the pipe between 2002 and 2007, according to the Oregon State Department of Environmental Quality. The largest spill was 200,000 gallons, though smaller spillages have flooded people’s homes, yards and a nearby creek. To date private citizens have not filed suit, but the city has paid clean-up costs of more than $600,000 for the spill, Van Dyke says.

The city also paid about $500,000 to Clean Water Inc. of Portland, a private sewage company, for transferring sewage to its lines  during clean-ups and repairs.  

The Garden Home line, built near the Multnomah line under a separate contract by a different company, and made of HDPE, also leaks.

A section of it broke in March, and sewage created a hole about 5 ft deep. Maintenance crews estimated sewage flowed from the hole at a rate of about 30 gallons per minute.

The final fix on the line calls for repairs in six places where it makes 90-degree angles. The city is still investigating potential causes of failure and has not filed suit in the leak, Van Dyke says.
 
Redmond To Start Design Work on New City Hall

Bend – BBT Architects of Bend, Ore., has been selected by the City of Redmond to design its new city hall and downtown park. BBT was selected from a field of eight respondents following the city’s issuance of a Request for Qualifications. After narrowing the field to four finalists, BBT was interviewed and selected as the most qualified firm to undertake the project, as well as presenting the lowest cost proposal.

The new City Hall will be a multi-floor building of approximately 30,000 sq ft. The new downtown Centennial Park will cover approximately 35,000 sq ft.

Construction of the project is tentativelyl scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008. The project will be completed by July 6, 2010, when it will be dedicated during Redmond’s Centennial celebration.

Todd Turner, AIA, Principal of BBT Architects, will head the design team.Walker Macy, an award winning landscape architecture and urban design firm from Portland, Ore., will design Centennial Park. Other consultants include Walker Structural Engineering of Bend, MFIA of Portland for mechanical and electrical engineering, and Ryder Levett Bucknall of Portland for cost estimating.

Beaverton School Reflects Surrounding Rural Area

Beaverton - A new U-shaped K-8 school planned by Beaverton School District will be sited on sloping land close to the 256-acre Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College.

The site slopes 45 feet from one side to the other, creating flatter areas for parking and playfields and allowing the building to step down the hillside.

Walker Macy is the landscape architect for both the college campus and the new school. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2008, with completion set for fall of 2009. The project will be built in two phases, the first 92,000 sq ft and the second 11,000 sq ft.

A courtyard separating the two wings will collect roof rain water in a bioswale that runs the length of the courtyard. “This area will have a lot of potential as a learning environment, whether it is actively used or used only visually,” said Gregg Stewart, Mahlum principal.

The construction cost of about $21.5 million was approved in a $195 million capital construction bond measure last Nov. 7. Others on the project team include KPFF, structural engineer; PAE, mechanical engineer; James G. Graham & Associates, electrical engineers, and HHPR, civil engineer. The general contractor is LCG Pence Construction.